The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson

I awoke this morning to find a stiff north-east breeze blowing into Tapana Lagoon. Perfect for our trip south to the Ha’apai Group, some sixty-five miles distant. We dropped our mooring at seven, said our farewells to Steve and scuttled out of Tapana under half a jib at six knots.

Holy Door Of Mercy Church Neiafu, Tonga. Photo Ray Penson

As we progressed south the wind came around to the east and blew 25 plus knots for the first couple of hours before settling down to a steady twenty to twenty-five knots, only easing off when we were a couple of hours from our destination. We had a fast boisterous sail.

We are headed to Pangai to clear into the Ha’apai Group. However, I didn’t expect to reach Pangai before sunset and planned to stop off at Haano Island for the night. We can then move on and clear into Pangai on Saturday morning.

In Neiafu I took the opportunity to buy a new fishing lure and some one hundred-pound strength fishing line. This afternoon I slung the lure over the side and an hour later had a fish on. As we were sailing at seven knots at the time the load on the line was tremendous. I got the boat headed to wind and slowed down and tried to haul in the line. Whatever was on the end was large – it felt like the deadweight of a large tuna. After ten minutes hauling I was getting nowhere, I gained a bit of line and then it was taken away again. Then as I was giving a good heave the line parted – the fish was gone.

The fish was too large to get on board and too large for eating – it would be too wasteful. So, I was not concerned about the fish getting away. The loss of my new fishing lure is bugging me. I will have to get inventive and try and make something up from bits and pieces I have onboard.